We need to talk about Bushmills

Bushmills Distillery is the third biggest Irish whiskey producer, after Midleton and the quiet powerhouse of Great Northern Distillery*.

It’s also the third best-selling Irish whiskey after Jameson and Tullamore D.E.W, shifting over 13 million bottles in 2023. 

The history dates back to 1784 when the original distillery was founded (it was rebuilt after a fire in 1885), but it’s likely whiskey was being made on the site as far back as 1608, when King James I granted a licence to distil in the area and even before that, when illicit distilling was ripe in the region. 

It is, undisputably, one of the biggest and most important players in Irish whiskey. So why do I want to manoeuvre the comically large MoM-branded spotlight** on it and give Bushmills more love?

Bushmills steps back into the limelight

For a while there, Bushmills was a quiet brand. I started writing for Master of Malt in September 2017, and between then and a couple of years ago, I could count on one hand the amount of meaningful communication I saw from them. When I spoke to friends of mine in the industry, they reported the same. 

Irish Distillers and its brands were relentless in the same period. Other distilleries bottling Bushmills single malt whiskey were getting awards and plaudits for “putting Irish single malt on the map”. It was all slightly maddening. Bushmills was still making great whiskey. Why wasn’t it making more effort to demonstrate that fact? 

The tide has thankfully shifted. 

The Causeway Collection debuted in 2021 and went about knocking socks off more than a very industrious robot whose primary function is to remove socks. The Causeway Distillery opened in 2023 to much pomp and fanfare, with two considerable single malts attached. 

The Bushmills Private Reserve Series, first launched in 2023 and updated annually since, provides an impressive array of single vintage single malts. The Prestige Collection now has four editions. There was a limited edition Bushmills 15 Year Old launched in the UK at the end of last year.

Then, just last week, Bushmills unveiled the oldest Irish single malt ever. This is a brand that is starting to feel itself again and seems busier than ever. 

Bushmills: survivor

It’s about damn time. This is one heck of a whiskey maker. Bushmills is a survivor, a malt master, and a producer so rooted in culture and history that it feels right that it shares a landscape with the Giant’s Causeway. Bushmills being the giant who walked these lands but managed to leave its mark all over the world, rather than one admittedly gorgeous corner of it. 

It had to fight to get here, of course. The turmoil of American Prohibition, the Irish War of Independence, multiple ownership changes, the rise and rise of Scotch whisky… Irish whiskey had it hard in the 20th century. 

There are various reasons why Bushmills clung on. A malt-driven double distillation approach in an era of single pot still set it apart. The fact that it never made grain whisky (today, all grain for its blends is sourced from Midleton) meant there was no threat from the monopolising force of Distillers Company Limited (DCL)***. 

For a time, it was one of the very few major producers to embrace a little peat (most big city Dublin distilleries like Jameson avoided peat in favour of a more approachable style). Being in Northern Ireland, it also managed to survive the bulk of the political impact of Independence that affected distilleries in the Republic. 

Manoeuvres and monopolies 

Today, Bushmills Distillery is owned by Proximo, a subsidiary of multinational spirits company Becle, who acquired it from Diageo in 2014, having themselves bought it from Pernod Ricard in 2005. The latter assumed control over Bushmills after buying Irish Distillers in June 1988, a company the distillery joined in 1972. It had originally formed as a merger between the Cork Distilleries Company, John Jameson & Son and John Power & Son in 1966 to ensure the existence of Irish whiskey amidst a serious industry crisis. 

While monopolies are never to be encouraged (industry giants dominating a market and bending legislation to their benefit = bad), the very fact that we even have Irish whiskey today owes a huge amount to that marriage of titans. By 1980, Bushmills was one of just two distilleries operating (the other being Midleton). 

But then Bushmills has always been clever in its manoeuvring. Its signature style of an Irish single malt aged in bourbon and sherry casks has persevered over the decades, but it switched to triple distillation and embraced blending. This gave it market flexibility and helped increase its presence in the US, the biggest and most important Irish whiskey market. Peat eventually gave way, too. A flavour-forward, complex approach to malt whiskey remained, however, and so did its standards. 

The malt master and Irish Um Bongo

Bushmills now produces 9 million litres of alcohol per annum but can push that to 11 (Spinal Tap-style). When Proximo took over, it expanded the original distillery’s capacity and added 29 warehouses before building a whole second distillery, the aforementioned Causeway Distillery.

A frankly greedy 20 pot stills create Bushmills single malt. These are split across typical wash stills, but the spirit and intermediate stills undergo a unique process. The heads and weak feints feed into a low wines receiver, while the middle cut goes into a strong feints receiver that makes up the charge for the spirit stills. It’s a more selective and efficient way of refining the spirit, giving it greater control over character and consistency.

The new make is all aromas of rolling green Irish countryside and orchards of fruit. But, over time, it develops what I’ve come to think of as a signature Um Bogo character. By which I mean tropical fruit so varied, lush, and juicy you’d think they must have dropped a dose of the good Lord’s juice in the barrel. 

Why Bushmills is so good in sherry casks

This spirit character has the weight and personality to stand up to strong cask profiles, while its flavour profile is also a great match for sherry and wine casks. How good Bushmills is at bringing these two elements together is evidenced by its core range through to its limited edition expressions. 

The Causeway Collection is your window into its long-aged house style, if you can get your hands on it. Expressions matured in casks such as Port, rum, Cognac, vermouth, and even acacia wood push the boundaries of traditional Irish whiskey. But while barrel experiments are seductive for whiskey drinkers, the key is as much the spirit that went into those casks.

Back in Frank McHardy’s day, the late ’80s into the mid-’90s, he was given license to create whiskey with the purpose of ageing for a long time. Now, that stock is hitting the market to the delight of everyone who knows how formidable the former Springbank master distiller is at creating spirit that bounces with vibrant energy even after a fair amount of time in cask. 

But we’re not just looking back. Current master blender Alex Thomas has a superpower, I’m told: rescuing the old casks that haven’t fared as well and turning them into something great. Her expertise and experience mean Bushmills boasts more than just a safe pair of hands. 

No looking back for Bushmills Distillery

For a long time, Bushmills didn’t talk enough about Irish malt whiskey. Yet the people filling that void were often bottling Bushmills. Jameson dominates so much of Irish whiskey, it’s often tempting when looking beyond it to pick a bright hopeful, one of the scores of new distilleries that have popped up across Ireland.

But Bushmills is in pole position to ensure it’s at the forefront of the conversation. It’s pivoted, pushed forward, and refound its mojo. The Causeway’s most enigmatic giant has a golden goose, and it’s not afraid to shout from the rooftops about its whiskey. 

Given it’s Saint Patrick’s Day on Monday, now seems like the opportune moment to see why. 

Highlighted product: Bushmills 16 Year Old 

Bushmills 16 Year Old can fly under the radar, but it deserves its moment. A showcase of how to manage cask influence, this triple-matured single malt spends time in bourbon and sherry casks before finishing in Port pipes, where it gathers layers of dried fruit richness, dark chocolate, and sticky toffee pudding sweetness. It balances indulgence and elegance, showcasing the deft hand of Bushmills’ maturation team.

Bushmills’ range also includes blends like the smooth, versatile Original, the sherried depth of Black Bush, and the lighter, vanilla-forward Red Bush. There’s also a tasty Caribbean Rum Finish.

The single malt journey begins with the 10 Year Old, setting the stage for the 16 Year Old, then comes the 21 Year Old, matured in bourbon and sherry before a Madeira cask finish. The 25 Year Old, which spends a staggering 21 years in Port pipes, and the 30 Year Old, luxuriously aged for 16 years in Pedro Ximénez casks, mark the pinnacle, both debuting with the opening of the Causeway Distillery. 

You can buy Bushmills Irish whiskey by clicking on the links in the product names. 

*Who, along with Bushmills, has helped prop up a lot of brands and get independent bottlings/bonders going with whiskey. Think Outwalker or Copeland Merchants’ Quay.

**Jake wanted it to be bigger than the Bat Symbol. Ok, so did I. Sue us. 

***DCL absorbed numerous distilleries and blending houses, securing such an iron grip on grain whisky production that by the mid-1900s, almost all grain whisky in Scotland came from DCL-owned distilleries. When Guinness acquired DCL in 1986, forming United Distillers, UK regulators actually investigated its control over the grain whisky supply. The company is now Diageo. 

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